I got a call from a friend. Would I please to go about 50 miles to Rural Illinois and pick up a 2 place horse trailer and bring it back. It needed to be done that afternoon because we ere due to get 8" of snow and high winds starting a 4 PM. This should 2.5 hours tops. I left at noon and should be back by 2:30. I got near my destination but the address I had was wrong. Around 6 air miles off. My GPS went nuts trying to route me to the wrong address and then on to the correct one. I ended up running on farm roads of clay with a little gravel. I probably drove 15 or so miles in this stuff. My truck is now covered in mud like it had just come back from Georgia.

I got there and checked out the trailer. Tires look OK and inflated. Since I was running empty for only about 50 miles I did not check pressures. The only light working was the right turn signal, brake, and tail combination. Who cares. I an running rural roads in the early afternoon daylight. I did notice it had one white wheel and 3 black ones. White one must be the spare. I did notice a black wheel inside with a shredded tire on it and there was an extra unmounted tire there too. Other than that, the trailer was empty. No jack or lug wrench. No nothing.

Off I went and 18 miles down the road the white wheel tire (former spare tire) threw a chunk of tread 2" by 6" and was flat. I pulled into a church parking lot and had to decide what to do. It was around 2:30 PM. No jack, no lug wrench, and no spare. I called two friends and one came out with a jack and wrench except he did have not have the handle for it. We decided to go an get the shredded spare tire removed from the wheel and mount the extra tire I had found in the trailer. Also the snow and wind was starting. We drove to multiple places trying to find anyone with a tire changer to do the simple swap. We even stopped at a Chevy dealer that was still open at 5:30 but only sales people were there. We put on about 100 miles and visiting three towns and found nothing. By this time it was snowing pretty good. We decided to call Flying J as they have a 24 hour tire center. They said "no. We only do truck tires".

We decided we are going to FlyingJ anyway and talk in person. It was about 25 miles away. I found one of the tire monkeys and he said "sure thing, bring it in. I can not balance it". I said I just need it mounted and for it to go 32 miles to my home. He did not charge us anything.

BUT..... the replacement tire had two bulges in the side wall. We had no choice. It was the only thing we had. It only had to last for 32 miles.

By now it is really snowing and we are doing about 30 mph for the 25 mile trip back on interstate and federal highways. Roads turned icy with a little rain mixed in and next to no traffic was around.

Upon arrival we discovered we could not jack up the trailer without a handle. We tried driving it on a few blocks and several other approaches. We spent over an hour in the blowing snow, before successfully getting it changed.

Off we went on secondary state highways in the blowing snow and rain mix. The road was so icy that I could not maintain traction at 30 mph so most of the 32 mile trip was done at 25 to 30 mph. Only three cars passed us during the entire trip and we got home at 12:15 AM.

So the 2.5 hour trip turned in to a 12 hour ordeal with my truck and trailer ending up blocking my iced up home driveway.

In conclusion, do not rely on aged out spare tires, even for local trips. Make sure that you have enough tools to replace any tire on your GMC yourself. AAA and other roadside companies are not always available, especially in bad weather and rural locations.

Ken B.

You're a good man, Mr. Burton. But, damn - I wish I'd made popcorn when I started reading your post. It was more entertaining and had more adventure than the movie I watched last night!

Richard

I'd probably have been almost as good a "friend" as you were: I'd have
told him where I left his pile of junk!

Ken H.

Colonel Ken,
I think I know you better than that. I believe you would have worked out some kind of solution to the problem just like me. It may have been a different solution. The trailer is not bad but the tires were the issue.

I told the owner it is not leaving my place without new tires. I will drop if off tomorrow or Thursday for 5 new shoes before it goes any farther. I also found a spare jack and lug wrench in my hangar that will go along with it. I also need to fix all of the lights before it hits the road again. The owner is another 95 miles away from me. The trailer needs to be at a farm between Green Bay and Madison, Wisconsin around Feb 3 to move a horse 80 miles to the University of Wisconsin. Then a few days later to move the horse again to a stable 40 miles west of Chicago.